Being part of Rod’s walking tour felt like being part of Melbourne comedy history. Rod, the grandfather of modern comedy in Melbourne was giving us his experience at the heart of Melbourne’s comedy history, taking us to the actual buildings where it all took place, along with all the wonderful hilarious anecdotes you might expect. At the same time, though, there was a strong sense of being part of something really special. A comedy festival show that will be remembered and spoken of with great affection, as “I was there when…” for years to come as other shows fade in the memory.
You may have heard of Rod’s famous ‘Bus’ shows (the night I went we invaded an exclusive Toorak restaurant), the idea came from a Cabaret show at The Comedy Cafe called ‘Tram’. Rod said that because he’s become more environmentally conscious, he’s calling this show ‘Walk’. It had all the hallmarks of ‘Bus’; the plastic Groucho nose & glasses as your ticket, Rod running amok with a chicken (Trevor) on a Stick and accosting passers by, invading restaurants and plenty of laughs. There were about 50 of us on the Walk, of many different ages and experiences, including performers, punters and we were very lucky to have John Pinder original owner of The Last Laugh in tow.
The tour started at the gorgeous old Perseverance Hotel on Brunswick St directly opposite the two buildings that used to house comedy/theatre restaurants; The Flying Trapeze and The Comedy Cafe, in the 70s. A lot of the jokes related to how bad the food was at these places, but it was interesting to hear Rod’s first joke and how he stole it from American TV and changed it and subverted it making it completely his own. The highlight was our visit to A Bar Named Barry, which used to be the original Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant. Rod Let John Pinder join in on the reminiscing at this point and they showed us a plaque that used to be a different plaque and behind it had been a time capsule of jokes by famous people of the day. Rod said that seeing as John was with us, why didn’t we look behind the plaque? “Does anyone have a philips head screwdriver?” Somehow, not surprisingly, three people did and the plaque was swiftly removed only to sadly reveal a gaping hole. The plaque was replaced and I can only hope that capsule is somewhere safe.
In between comedy venues Rod told us tales of living in Fitzroy and adventures he had on the bus tours and stopped to talk to anyone we met. He also had no shame about knocking on doors and asking complete strangers to let 50 people drop in for a cup of tea. Other highlights included Rod turning on his loudspeaker’s alarm because he had caught a driver on a mobile phone, being entertained by some local indigenous blokes and all of us cramming onto an already stuffed tram.
Rod did these shows at 3pm on Saturday afternoons at the Festival and though advertised to go for an hour it went for 90 minutes but I’m sure there were no complaints. Rod gave us comedy, he gave us memories, a sense of community, his place and our own place in an ongoing history, but most of all he entertained us, and most of Fitzroy -he had a megaphone. If Rod ever does a show like this again, you might want to make sure you can go.
For booking details visit the Comedy Festival website